Author's Note: Here's a little ficlet. I was preparing to start the next chapter of Sleepwalker, but, before I did that, I had this idea. This takes place years after the events of Labyrinth. Sarah and Jareth have been married for decades and this is just, basically, Sarah's thoughts. I hope you enjoy! And, as always, I would love to hear what you think. I definitely live for reviews ;)

Disclaimer: These are always mandatory when dabbling in fan fiction. If there is anything at all that is reminiscent of the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth, then it probably belongs to Jim Henson, et al., including (but not limited to) the characters of Sarah Williams & Jareth, the Goblin King.

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Musings of a Goblin Queen

Do you belong to someone?

09.30.06

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Do you belong to someone?

Now, before you answer, think about what that sentence means. Focus on the word belong and all its implications while you do that.

Alright, I'll ask again.

Do you belong to someone?

I am almost positive that nearly all of you have given a positive affirmation to that thought. Of course you belong to someone, right? Human beings are social; it is their intent throughout their measly, insignificant, mortal lives to forge bonds with other creatures such as them. That sense, that need to belong… it overwhelms us at times. They are only truly happy, they believe, when they belong. Therefore, if, as a human, you agree that you belong, then you answered my question with a 'yes'.

I tell you that your answer should be 'no'.

Let's discuss the idea of belonging. By definition – and I am intimately acquainted with the definition of the word given that it has orchestrated my entire being – it could mean quite a few things: a proper place, membership to some frivolous organization, to be a part of something… And, maybe, you are right in your ascertaining if you believe that such a meaning was what I had been implying with my simple question.

But, I tell you, that is not what I meant. I was referring to the verb (Goodness, it's been so long since my education and yet I remember such ridiculous terms. I knew, even then, that the mortal life was not for me but did Mrs. Crane ever believe me? Old bat said I was being dramatic.) belong at it's basest.

Belong: to be the property of.

Now, given the proper definition, would you agree?

Do you belong to someone?

Maybe, though I'm equally certain that a majority of you are quickly switching your 'yes' answers to 'no's.

Maybe you feel like you are the property of your parents – and maybe you are right. Especially if under the legal age – what is that now? Eighteen, still? Maybe then you could argue with me but, even so, you would not be able to. For I am Underground; how you have even come to know my thoughts is beyond me. Though, I shall be honest, after decades of being surrounded by magick, I have grown accustomed to it all. Nothing surprises me (in that aspect) any more.

Or, maybe you feel as if you have found your mate in life. You wed, a frivolous event that neither of you desire – why is there such elaborations involved with the simplicity of love? I understand the grandeur of my own marriage; he is a King, I his new Queen. But mortals? Even when I was ignorant of my own state, and thought I was destined to live as a mortal, I never understood their ways. I have always preferred fantasy to reality, fiction to truth.

Sometimes I wonder if that was due to my belongingness. Did I belong because of my desires? Or did my desires come about because, somewhere deep inside of me, buried until I was old enough to comprehend what it all mean, I knew I belonged… just not there.

Once I believed in the concept of soul mates, that every person in this world (being naïve, my thoughts only led to acceptance of the Aboveground; the Underground did not become real to me until my teenage years, oh so long ago…) had their match out there somewhere.

But human beings are fickle and impulsive (I knew that then). Rather than wait for their opposite, their soul mate, they settled for anything. My mother settled for my father. Their marriage was rocky, at best, and it came as no big surprise (though I surely did not see it that way then; with age comes wisdom, I admit) when they went their separate ways. Mother found Jeremy, Dad met Karen. I was never sure if they found their soul mates but, in my eye – watching from below, with the help of one of my mate's crystals – they seemed to belong.

But not to each other. With each other.

Which brings me back to my original question.

Do you belong to someone?

I do.

Honestly, I never had a choice, never had a chance. Oh, I was young and foolish once and he was everything, as a young girl, I wanted in a man but would not accept. The great Goblin King, kind when he was cruel, generous when he was taking everything away from me.

I defeated him that first, though he – after all these years of being his, illustrating that, in the end, he had won – will never admit it. I guess, in a way, my defeat was superficial. Yes, I beat the dreaded labyrinth and was awarded the chance to return home with my baby brother Toby (Baby, I say. Toby is a grown man with children of his own. One need not bother with time when they are immortal – a wedding gift from my King – but, being mortal once myself, it always surprises, and hurts, me to see those I loved wither and die).

But he won, nonetheless. I belonged to him. And I knew it.

Whether it was a spell, some perverse magick or just a declaration from Above, I'll never know. One day I was plain Sarah Williams, a teenage drama queen – the next I was his Sarah… living and breathing solely for him.

He infiltrated my every thought. Everything I did I did it for him in some fashion. I never spoke his name, Jareth – those two beautiful syllables are still music to my ears – aloud in fear that he would come and I would be awestruck at his presence.

Honestly, in those days, before I knew the extent of my belongingness, I would have done anything for him. If he came to me, offering a crystal, I would have taken it without a thought, leaving my average life behind.

In fact, I did. I am not sure if I was thinking straight at the time or not, but I did. I gave up my mortal life, my mortal family – everything— for him, following him Underground as if in some sort of trance.

It's strange to say it like that. I am not a captive, nor am I slave. I chose to come here willingly; shortly after I graduated from high school, and my eighteenth birthday had passed, the obsession within me climaxed. At that moment I knew that if I did not see him, hear him, touch him, I would die.

I called to him. He came, his lips twisted in a cunning yet knowing grin. He had been waiting for me; he knew I was his property, his possession – I had been for some time. From my birth, maybe. From that first moment when I learned of the labyrinth and its King's existence as detailed in the weathered old red book my mother had given me unknowingly, probably. From the time I ran the labyrinth for Toby, definitely.

I belonged to him. He had just come to collect what was his.

It's been that way ever since.

He treats me well, far better than any of his other possessions. He loves me, he says, and I believe him – most of the time. It's just different for him; the cold Goblin King had never loved before. I'm not sure he knew how to love anyone but himself but he has tried – goodness, how he has tried – just for my sake. We have grown so close since our marriage. (Marriage was his idea, granting the title of Goblin Queen unto me. I would have been satisfied to sleep at the foot of his bed like a common pup. Anything would have sufficed to loosen the control he held over me those early years.) I can not imagine every leaving him.

I love him, too.

Unless you have ever belonged to someone, truly belonged to someone, you think my thoughts nothing more than a tired Queen, grown bored with her immortal life (poor Queenie, I know). Yes, it can grow dull, living the same life over and over as everything I once knew fades into the background. Years have past and I no longer think of myself as Sarah Williams, Richard and Linda's only child. I am Queen Sarah, Jareth's wife. And that is what I will always be…

I'm sure some of you are wondering why I don't leave – wouldn't anything, even a mortal life, be better than being a possession?

I can't. I belong to him.

And he belongs to me.

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